Great test, explanation and comparison with patience. Many of us don't get the chance to understand what the manufacturer goal and what they are trying to relay to us consumers why their product is overall good for us. I get caught up in the fabrication of car audio but I find the tech side very interesting indeed. I may get some of the equipment you have just to mess around hell I got the time to see how stuff works lol
I have the smaller version of this same tweeter (SB21RDCN) in my Challenger, absolutely love it. At $55 each, they're a steal. Haven't taken distortion measurements on mine yet, will try to find time this weekend to see how they compare. The FS is a little higher on the SB21RDCN, but only by a couple of hundred hertz. Currently, my tweeters are paired with Scanspeak 10f's in a 3-way crossed at 2.5K and they don't seem to be complaining. Thanks for sharing your video!
Nice job mate :-) Just wanted to point out you should measure 1cm from membrane :-) Otherwise you got those reflections. Then its very hard to compare sound between two tweeters and midrange in such space, just becouse you got different distance to midrange from each tweeter. And as you correctly mentioned distortion is just one of few reasons how to do crossover. In your case if you have tweeter very close to midrange, you can use higher crossover point. But many people got midrange in door and tweeter in pillar. So you cant cross it at 3kHz, becouse wave is just 11,4cm long.
Sir, do make test of SB29 Vs alpine SPX pro ..... Both are similar structure but very different priced , alpine being much lesser. But spx pro is also claimed to be very worthy. So if you can do this sb29 vs spx pro , it would very useful and appriciable
This video is exactly what I was looking for, really appreciated the AB comparison explanation and details about distortion. Nowadays you have more expérience, hence my question, how would you measure tweeter distortion now ? With mic on-axis almost nearfield ? I'd like to measure mine because they have nice curve but sounds so harsh and I suspect distortion plays big role in it..
@@RAW-CAt thanks for your answer 🤩, you mean 90db SPL, like I make a sweep and see on the SPL tab frequency response if it's near 90db it should be right or just use the SPL meter from REW ?
Hey mate. Any chance of doing this same test with 2 different mid range speakers? If there's any point to it that is 🤷♂️ just so we can see what sort of disto percentage we get on mids and or even widebands.
You can do distorsion measurements for any type of driver. It's just easier on a tweeter, as it doesn't need an enclosure. Mids and midbass needs an enclosure (or just a large baffle). I am planing to make similar comparison between two midrange and midbass drivers.
Excellent work mate. Is this for a front 2 way or 3 way? Basically today i had the same test on my car comparing 7 sets of tweeters by ear of course. It's really painful i can tell :-)
Also don't forget, the same -5dB on your director doesn't affect both tweeters the same way because of the efficiency differences. If you wanted to do a a test removing all variables, you would want to volume match between tests.
Also, I absolutely adore the SB29s... If they weren't so dang big I would have put them back in my car without hesitation. I refuse to sell my old ones in the chance I could use them again.
25:30 cant cross it at 1k , i have a 820hz fs vifa tweeter 0.45g mms, crossed at 2k and it has no authority at 2k... at least 2.5k or 3k might be acceptable... the sb acoustics might be ok down to 2,2k or so... I can't figure out which tweeter to get.. I have VIFA ne180w-4 6.5 inch midwoofer, it can play up to 5k, and the mid woofer had way more body and thickness than the tweeter... it's a bad idea to make a tweeter play low... from my experience... but I would like to try this SB tweeter and see if it can convince me that i can cross over lower.... because i want the vifa midwoofer to have more power handling., but obviously the sound matters too.. and this vifa driver sounds nice tuned higher... so im tired of trying different tweeters... the problem is that the tweeter is only 1 inch and because of it's size it doesn't make enough spl the lower you go.... 90 db sensitivity tweeter.... but the mid range with 88db sensitivity sounds louder than the tweeter at high frequencies...
@@RAW-CAt is this tweeter soft sounding in your opinion or balanced, or bright and detailed, or on harsher side, I kind of like the soft to balanced tweeter, as least harsh as posible, so you can listen for prolonged time without ear fatigue or head aches.. I also tried a ribbon tweeter fountek cd 3.0 but that's even brighter than Vifa and dayton audio tweeter, which I tried, but not as harsh as some tweeters.
@@RAW-CAt the harshness around what frequenciess 3-6khz ? I had used Dayton Audio DC28F-8 before... i mean you can only adjust the SPL but you can't adjust how the tweeter sounds, i.e. thin or thick sound, airy or closed sounding, so that;s why an ideal tweeter would be one that can play nicely flat, without much EQ work.. and so far , so im kinda forced to tune the midwoofer higher... despite the SPL matching the woofer, the tweeter doesnt have the same authority... it sounds more hollow... so this is why i asked you about this tweeter
@@lukasHenchmanwell, I guess I am not on the same level as you as to me all what you are describing can be changed with EQ. "Airy" is just extra energy above 10kHz, that is if you have your tweets dead on axis. A quality tweeter such as SB29 is flat OUTSIDE of the car. When you put it in A pillars or corners of the dash, the room (car) changes the response. To me the only way how a tweeter can sound harsh with a linear frequency response is if it has a lot of distortion.
Great test, explanation and comparison with patience. Many of us don't get the chance to understand what the manufacturer goal and what they are trying to relay to us consumers why their product is overall good for us. I get caught up in the fabrication of car audio but I find the tech side very interesting indeed. I may get some of the equipment you have just to mess around hell I got the time to see how stuff works lol
Hey from California, good stuff as always !
I watch all your videos and appreciate all the knowledge you share. Could you please do a video of how you do your MM technique
I have the smaller version of this same tweeter (SB21RDCN) in my Challenger, absolutely love it. At $55 each, they're a steal. Haven't taken distortion measurements on mine yet, will try to find time this weekend to see how they compare. The FS is a little higher on the SB21RDCN, but only by a couple of hundred hertz. Currently, my tweeters are paired with Scanspeak 10f's in a 3-way crossed at 2.5K and they don't seem to be complaining. Thanks for sharing your video!
If you manage to make some measurements, please share them in "RTA in cars" on FB😉
I believe Tekton Design is using these SB Acoustics tweeters from about 1 kHz. But many of them together thus with much lower signal levels.
Nice job mate :-) Just wanted to point out you should measure 1cm from membrane :-) Otherwise you got those reflections. Then its very hard to compare sound between two tweeters and midrange in such space, just becouse you got different distance to midrange from each tweeter. And as you correctly mentioned distortion is just one of few reasons how to do crossover. In your case if you have tweeter very close to midrange, you can use higher crossover point. But many people got midrange in door and tweeter in pillar. So you cant cross it at 3kHz, becouse wave is just 11,4cm long.
Sir, do make test of SB29 Vs alpine SPX pro ..... Both are similar structure but very different priced , alpine being much lesser. But spx pro is also claimed to be very worthy.
So if you can do this sb29 vs spx pro , it would very useful and appriciable
This video is exactly what I was looking for, really appreciated the AB comparison explanation and details about distortion.
Nowadays you have more expérience, hence my question, how would you measure tweeter distortion now ? With mic on-axis almost nearfield ? I'd like to measure mine because they have nice curve but sounds so harsh and I suspect distortion plays big role in it..
The distance has no relevance really. Output matters and you need to make sure not to clip the mic. Now I do it at 1m distance 90dB level.
@@RAW-CAt thanks for your answer 🤩, you mean 90db SPL, like I make a sweep and see on the SPL tab frequency response if it's near 90db it should be right or just use the SPL meter from REW ?
@@Matteo080101 If your microphone has a calibrated SPL level, then yes. Or you can use a handheld SPL meter for 10bucks of ebay.
Hey mate. Any chance of doing this same test with 2 different mid range speakers? If there's any point to it that is 🤷♂️ just so we can see what sort of disto percentage we get on mids and or even widebands.
You can do distorsion measurements for any type of driver. It's just easier on a tweeter, as it doesn't need an enclosure. Mids and midbass needs an enclosure (or just a large baffle). I am planing to make similar comparison between two midrange and midbass drivers.
@@RAW-CAt thanks. Look forward to those tests.
Excellent work mate. Is this for a front 2 way or 3 way? Basically today i had the same test on my car comparing 7 sets of tweeters by ear of course. It's really painful i can tell :-)
It's forna 3 way🙃 Painfull but still fun😎
Also don't forget, the same -5dB on your director doesn't affect both tweeters the same way because of the efficiency differences. If you wanted to do a a test removing all variables, you would want to volume match between tests.
Also, I absolutely adore the SB29s... If they weren't so dang big I would have put them back in my car without hesitation. I refuse to sell my old ones in the chance I could use them again.
Scanspeak excellent quality
Go with flat after 20hz frequency to start ? 2500khz
Do you do sweeps in REW to determine distortion?
Thanks!
If you watch the video from 6:20, I explain everything.
25:30 cant cross it at 1k , i have a 820hz fs vifa tweeter 0.45g mms, crossed at 2k and it has no authority at 2k... at least 2.5k or 3k might be acceptable... the sb acoustics might be ok down to 2,2k or so... I can't figure out which tweeter to get.. I have VIFA ne180w-4 6.5 inch midwoofer, it can play up to 5k, and the mid woofer had way more body and thickness than the tweeter... it's a bad idea to make a tweeter play low... from my experience... but I would like to try this SB tweeter and see if it can convince me that i can cross over lower.... because i want the vifa midwoofer to have more power handling., but obviously the sound matters too.. and this vifa driver sounds nice tuned higher... so im tired of trying different tweeters... the problem is that the tweeter is only 1 inch and because of it's size it doesn't make enough spl the lower you go.... 90 db sensitivity tweeter.... but the mid range with 88db sensitivity sounds louder than the tweeter at high frequencies...
SB29 is much bigger than a 1in tweeter,it has much more cone area. SB21 is s.aller in size.
@@RAW-CAt is this tweeter soft sounding in your opinion or balanced, or bright and detailed, or on harsher side, I kind of like the soft to balanced tweeter, as least harsh as posible, so you can listen for prolonged time without ear fatigue or head aches.. I also tried a ribbon tweeter fountek cd 3.0 but that's even brighter than Vifa and dayton audio tweeter, which I tried, but not as harsh as some tweeters.
@@lukasHenchman I use EQ, so those characteristics don't matter much to me. If it's too harsh or bright, I just cut it.
@@RAW-CAt the harshness around what frequenciess 3-6khz ? I had used Dayton Audio DC28F-8 before... i mean you can only adjust the SPL but you can't adjust how the tweeter sounds, i.e. thin or thick sound, airy or closed sounding, so that;s why an ideal tweeter would be one that can play nicely flat, without much EQ work.. and so far , so im kinda forced to tune the midwoofer higher... despite the SPL matching the woofer, the tweeter doesnt have the same authority... it sounds more hollow... so this is why i asked you about this tweeter
@@lukasHenchmanwell, I guess I am not on the same level as you as to me all what you are describing can be changed with EQ. "Airy" is just extra energy above 10kHz, that is if you have your tweets dead on axis. A quality tweeter such as SB29 is flat OUTSIDE of the car. When you put it in A pillars or corners of the dash, the room (car) changes the response. To me the only way how a tweeter can sound harsh with a linear frequency response is if it has a lot of distortion.
people are saying that the sb26 is better
Depends on the purpose. 26 is smaller, easier to fit and better if you need a higher crossover. Main benefit of 29 is the low crossover.
1600 at 24db
Anybody over 15 years old who can't tell where the 10 is on a watch should wear a digital and be ashamed of themselves.
1 k db? 24
Scans 2500k and up maybe 2 k fs
Fs from scans? Guessing 2k